Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Who Killed Stephen Smith? Part Four (S01E17)

Episode Date: November 11, 2021

While a lot of the recent Murdaugh Murders news has focused on Alex Murdaugh, his insurance fraud schemes, and "assisted suicide" plot, we want to make this episode 17 about Stephen Smith. Because his life mattered too.  In this episode, we’ll revisit the December 7, 2015 anonymous tip to South Carolina Highway Patrol, examine the December 9, 2015 alternative theory presented by Hampton law enforcement, and the eventual interview six months later which concluded the SCHP investigation into Stephen's brutal death. To learn more about how you can help preserve Stephen's legacy and help his family, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/standingforstephensmith And a special thank you to: The Bannon Law Group - From sitting by the fires to setting them, the Bannon Law Group has got you covered. Lauren Taylor Law - Few events are more traumatic and stressful than a divorce - let Lauren Taylor make a plan tailor made for you. Visit Lauren Taylor dot com to learn more. Nature's Highway CBD - Nature’s Highway is dedicated to introducing consumers to the life changing potential of CBD and its family of other relevant cannaboiniods. We pride ourselves on providing the purest, highest quality hemp products at the most competitive prices. Midwood Smokehouse - Your neighborhood smokehouse using nothing but NC hickory hard wood and hard work to make the best barbecue around. Ross & Pines - Uncovering the truth and fighting police coverups is what Noah Pines and his team of lawyers at Ross & Pines do when defending you from being falsely accused, or wrongly convicted, of committing a crime.  For current and accurate updates:  Twitter.com/mandymatney Support Our Podcast at: https://murdaughmurderspodcast.com/support-the-show Please consider sharing your support by leaving a review on Apple at the following link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murdaugh-murders-podcast/id1573560247 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't know who killed Steven Smith, but I know his family has now waited 2,316 days to get justice. And now, after a particularly painful few months for the Smith family, I am more determined than ever to get answers for them. My name is Mandy Matney. I'm the news director for fitsnews.com and I've been investigating the Murdock family for more than two and a half years now. And this is the Murdock Murders podcast.

Previously on the Murdock Murders. On June 22, huge news broke in this case. I was the first to report that the South Carolina law enforcement division, also known as SLED, the same agency investigating the Murdock Murders opened an investigation into the Steven Smith death. SLED told me that this was based on information gathered during the course of the double homicide investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdock. So what happened to Steven Smith?

Like the probe of the 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach, the 2015 investigation into Smith's death was chaotic from the beginning, derailed by jurisdictional perplexity and suspicions of investigative interference. Smith was found dead just before 4 a.m. on July 8, 2015. He was found in the middle of Sandy Run Road in Hampton County, South Carolina. Steven had a seven inch gash on the right side of his forehead. His head was warped by blunt force. The family kept the casket open so that people could see what was done to him.

Evidence here. There is only evidence of where the body was found. There's no car parts, no any type of parts to a car, or a truck, or any other vehicle. A bunch of people, like I just slept in the house the first official time yesterday and I went into the store and a bunch of people kept coming up to me and they were like, you know, the Murdock boys are behind it. The rumors just going around in Hampton that everybody keeps coming up to me and saying it's Murdock boys.

This name, people associated with this name have been going around kind of threatening or putting the heat on people saying, you know, keep your mouth closed if you heard something or whatever. The person who heard him was shot. Then we heard it was a hit and run, but recently, probably a week ago, we can half a go, I'd say something like that. I heard that these two, maybe three young men were in the vehicle, they were right down at 601, saw the car on the side of the road, I guess saw the boy walking, they turned back

around. I guess they were attempting to, I don't want to say, you know, mess around with him or something like that, and stuck something out the window in it, you know, hit him in, I don't know if he hit him in the head or the back, or where it hit him, and then that's pretty much all I heard I did hear names and I heard a name and that name was, he goes about Buster Murdock. Buster was on our radar long before you were, you know, the Murdocks know that, they know that he's on our radar.

I don't have anything against them, but if it happened, like you said, I mean, if it happened. On December 7th, 2015, the South Carolina Highway Patrol receives an anonymous tip, and I'm quoting directly from the case file here, quote, Donterio Akin, along with another black male and a white male, parentheses Murdock, are the ones involved in death, end quote. December 18th, 2015, Proctor receives information from Duncan about a man named Daryl Williams, who says his stepson, Patrick Wilson, told him that Sean Connolly struck and killed Stephen

Smith. And then Todd Proctor writes something very interesting in the case file, quote, Mr. Williams stated that the reason that he was passing this information along was because Randy Murdock told him to call. So that brings us to December 21st, 2015, Corporal Duncan at the Highway Patrol interviews Nick Ginn of the Hampton Police Department in reference to quote, a tip that came in from Sergeant Barnes. This is about Patrick Wilson.

To recap a few weeks after a newspaper story mentioned the possibility of a prominent Hampton County family being involved with Stephen's death, Randy Murdock supposedly told this man to call the Highway Patrol and tell them a story that suspiciously fits into the police narrative that is supported by no evidence. And that is that Stephen was hit by a car. In this episode, we're going to take you through the last few months of the initial investigation to show you where police were at when the case went cold in 2016. We highly suggest you going back and listening to episodes two, four and nine for this one

to make a whole lot more sense. In our last episode on the Stephen Smith investigation, we teased an interview between Corporal Michael E. Duncan of the Highway Patrol and Nick Ginn of the Hampton Police Department. This case that we've got, I'll go over a little bit about, we've got some information about certain things and this was a tip that was given to us from, I believe, Patrick Wilson. He said, she said, deal that we've gathered that information so far. And I believe this come from, is it a Darren Williams?

Is that correct? It's Daryl. Daryl Williams? Okay. Yep. And do you know Daryl? Yes. Okay.

How do you know? He is my stepdad, technically. Okay. All right. And supposedly, Patrick Wilson told him this information about... Right. He, Daryl, was dating Patrick's mama. Okay.

So, Patrick's kind of looked at him as a father figure, you know, over the past, I don't know exactly how long they've been, they were together, but basically, he just looked at him as a father figure. He came fishing and hunting and things of that sort. Okay. Can you tell me what was told to you, we've tried to get in touch with Patrick, but he, you know, he's kind of avoiding the call, the contact and all. Right.

So, basically, Daryl called me and he said, look, he said, this is what I was told. He said, Patrick, come over here to the house. He said, he told me that Sean Connolly was drunk and hit something. He said he went back the next day to see what it was he had hit and he seen a lot of police out there. So, he talked to one of the cops and then he had left and then he learned, I guess, by media that somebody had been killed in that same area. That's why the police were there.

Okay. So, with him telling, he said that Sean called him crying saying that that's what had happened. Okay. And then Patrick was telling Daryl and Daryl told me that Patrick was crying telling him and after he got finished telling the story, he walked outside his house and threw up. Here, Nickin, who just won a special election in September 2021 for a seat on the Vaarnville City Council, by the way, is telling Duncan that Patrick Wilson threw up after he told his stepdad that his friend hit Stephen with his truck.

Why would a teenage boy throw up after telling that story? Okay. And he said, Nick, he said, Nick, he said, this is just me thinking, he said, but I think that Patrick was with him. He said, why else would he throw up and get all upset like that because somebody else, you know, had done something. Right. Right.

Did he go into any detail about how it happened? You know, I mean, supposedly he had, he had fixed his mirror. He had patched it, wanted to mirror us up on the truck. Okay. All right. I pulled all of all of his records and I was looking to see, you know, what kind of vehicles they had. And I didn't know if they just he described basically how he hit him or how, you know,

what happened. It was supposedly the mirror. And I've got, I don't know, I got Mitch. I think I sent him the pictures of the truck that he's driving and then he would have been driving that night. Okay. All right. But I'm pretty sure I want to say that I sent everything to Mitch.

Mitch. Yeah, Altman. Okay. Okay. Because he, you know, he, him and my brother and all grew up and, you know, he and I are pretty good friends and I didn't know exactly who to contact. So my first thing when I got off the phone with Daryl was, all right, Mitch popped in my head.

I wept, so I called Mitch and he said he would get that information where it needed to go. All right. And so basically just your, your knowledge of it is, is a third party is from what Darren is telling you. Right. He said he was concerned and somebody needed to know because somebody's lost a, you know, a son and stuff like that. And he said, that's just something that you don't just sit on if you know something,

anything about it. So when did, when did he come to you about this? I mean, we got this. Let me see. And we got this tip. We got this back on December the 9th and we've had, you know, a couple of people out looking for, for Patrick. But then my thought was, well, let's just, you know, let's see what, what was told from,

you know, someone else. Right. But when did he come to you about that? Do you recall? May it come to December the 9th? It's been, it hasn't been no longer three weeks. Okay. All right.

And then I found it was Wednesday, December 9th at 7.58 a.m. That's right. December 9th. You're right there now. That's, that's when I sent it to Mitch. I told him I needed him to contact me ASAP. Wednesday, December 9th would be just two days after the highway patrol received a tip that Murdoch was involved in Steven Smith's death.

Keep in mind, Duncan is saying here that he received this tip from trooper Mitch Altman on December 9th. And according to the highway patrol's case file, they essentially sat on it until Proctor got word of this tip and tried to track down Patrick Wilson on December 18. That's 11 days where it looks like nothing happened. Why would it take so long for them to investigate this tip? And how hard would it be to track down a teenager in a small town? Okay.

All right. Um, as far as Patrick goes, what do you feel about Patrick? I mean, what kind of, I mean, what kind of person you think he's, you know, as far as a, as far as a good hearted person, I think he is, but I think he's, uh, he's a little. Is he shady? Yeah, I'm not trying to be, I'm not trying to be, you know, put words in your mouth. Don't get wrong. But that's the best way I kind of describe people sometimes when.

Well, that was the word I had in my mind, but I was trying to think of a better way to put it. I understand that. His dad is not, his real dad is, is not a outstanding society member. Been arrested, you know, before. Yeah. And I think he's into some drugs and stuff like that. So. Well, you think, you think Patrick has, does he have a criminal background as far as that

goes as well? I mean, I don't really want to ask. He was charged, he was charged with attempted murder, um, but I'm not exactly sure what the circumstances behind that was. I want to say that that was one of them times that they may have charged him a higher charge to work their way down. Yes, sir. I understand.

I understand. Yeah. But, uh, I mean, do you ever have any dealings with him? I mean, he's very respectful and stuff like that, but I, he, he's a little, little shady. That's probably the perfect word to use. There is no record that the highway patrol looked into Patrick Wilson's quote unquote shady past, but I did. Wilson was charged with three counts of attempted murder on April 17, 2015.

According to a arrest warrant in the case, Wilson got into an argument with a man and fired his gun at the man's car, which had two passengers inside of it. This incident happened on Prince William Road in Brunson, South Carolina. Here is a clip from the 911 call. Yeah. The fellow did a little bit of work for us. We told him we'd have his money one day. He is now following us around.

He just fired a gun and shot at us. And now I'm trying to have fallen to get his tag number, ma'am. He's driving a Chevy full size Chevrolet. It's David Wilson's son. We had pulled over at Prince William Church here because he was following us. He wanted his money. We told the child to call us Monday. We would have a check Monday.

All right. And as he wanted to sit there and argue, we pull off. If we pull off, he sits in the road and fires gun at us. It hits the sign right beside us. Okay. Is he still there where y'all are at or is he gone? No, he turned around, ma'am. He is out of sight.

According to the arrest warrants, all victims were afraid for their lives. John Connolly, the person who Patrick Wilson allegedly later claimed hit Stephen with his truck, was in the car with Wilson when the shooting occurred, according to his witness statement. Connolly told police that Patrick Wilson grabbed his gun and shot at the sign after he argued with a man. The case file includes multiple witness statements and a photo of the bullet launched into the crossroads sign. A Hampton County grand jury later indicted Wilson on attempted murder and assault and battery in August 2015. While Wilson was out on bond, the family he allegedly shot at filed multiple harassment complaints against Wilson. And guess who Patrick Wilson's attorney was?

Corey Fleming. Corey Fleming's name comes up a lot throughout the Murdoch murder saga. For a reminder, Corey Fleming is a close friend of the Murdoch family and was an attorney in Beaufort, South Carolina. In 2018, Fleming represented Gloria Satterfield's family in a very botched, wrongful death settlement against Ellick Murdoch. In 2019, Fleming temporarily represented Connor Cook in the boat crash incident that killed Mallory Beach. And two recent lawsuits accused Corey Fleming of misconduct in those separate incidents. Fleming just got his law license temporarily revoked for his alleged involvement in the Satterfield case. In February 2018, Wilson's indictments were all null-prost, which means that the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office, where Ellick Murdoch worked as a part-time solicitor,

decided to not prosecute Wilson's charges and the charges were dropped. But this looks like a clear scenario of a violent crime with victims who appeared to cooperate that the 14th Circuit null-prost without a plea deal. And Wilson's connection isn't the only link to the powerful family of Hampton County. Two lawsuits were filed against Sean Connolly by the Murdoch law firm in the year after Stephen died. On August 7, 2015, Randy Murdoch filed a motor vehicle accident lawsuit against Connolly. On behalf of his client, Christopher Still, that lawsuit was dismissed in November 2016. Perry Buckner, a well-known friend of the Murdochs, was the judge in that case. And on May 17, 2016, Neil Alger, who is an attorney at PMPED, the Murdoch family law firm, filed a motor vehicle accident lawsuit against Sean Connolly.

That lawsuit was also dismissed in September 2016. So yes, both Patrick Wilson and Sean Connolly have a number of connections to the Murdoch family and their law firm. At the very least, the fact that we've found two teenagers in this investigation who were sued multiple times by the Murdoch law firm for car accidents shows how far-reaching the Murdoch's power was in a place like Hampton County. Even teenagers without a penny to spare were being sued by this powerful law firm. And then we have to think of the worst-case scenarios. What if these lawsuits and charges were used as leverage? We have found more troubling information about the Patrick Wilson-Sean Connolly connection to the 2021 sled investigation. And we will get into that later.

But for now, we're going to get through the case files and answer the question, what happened to the Stephen Smith investigation before it went cold? Which brings us to December 29, 2015. Now, the Highway Patrol apparently didn't do any follow-ups with Sean Connolly or Patrick Wilson according to the case file. There's no record of the Highway Patrol speaking with either one of them. And really, there was very little movement with the case before it went cold. But on December 29, 2015, I noticed something. A video related to this case that was taken by Trooper G.N. Hoffman was disposed of. Why would the Highway Patrol destroy any evidence in this case in December 2015 when the case was obviously running out of leads and nowhere close to being solved?

According to the case file, progress in the investigation slowed to a snail's pace in 2016. On January 26, 2016, Todd Proctor of the Highway Patrol got a search warrant for Stephen's phone at cellcode partnerships slash Verizon Wireless. All have David read that search warrant. To identify cell-sites, text messages, to include content, identify cell-site information, subscriber and phone toll information to include but not limited to target number, main number, account status, type of phone, subscriber name, published status, service address, billing address, other numbers, former service number, UFMI and IMSI numbers for each call from June 9, 2015 to July 9, 2015. Any and all information submitted pursuant to this search warrant shall be in electronic format unless otherwise requested. Reason for Afian's belief that the property sought is on the subject premises?

The owner of the above described cell phone was fatally wounded in an incident on or about July 8, 2015 on Sandy Run Road within the County of Hampton, South Carolina. The uses of the phone before the incident are pertinent to the ongoing investigation. The individual was found deceased in the middle of the roadway with severe head trauma. The investigation has led to this individual not being struck by a vehicle and possible foul play. The information on the phone would help determine who the victim had contact with prior to the events that led to his death. So why did the Highway Patrol take so long to get the search warrant? Stephen's phone would hold so many answers to this investigation. Who did he speak to last when he was coming home from school in Orangeburg on July 7, 2015?

Did his car actually break down? Where was he? Who was he with? The Highway Patrol should not have taken six months to get the search warrant. They should have tried to get this immediately and there's no signs of that. And if the South Carolina Highway Patrol's investigation led to the fact that Stephen wasn't killed by a car, and it says that in the search warrant, why were they still investigating this case? They don't investigate murders. Sled investigates murders in South Carolina. Why didn't they at least attempt to give this investigation to Sled back in 2016 when they knew that their investigation was not into a vehicle accident? In this document, in January 2016 is the last mention of Stephen's phone in the case files.

According to the case files, there was no movement whatsoever in the investigation until June 2016 when Trooper J.D. James of the Highway Patrol interviewed Don Terrio Aitken. For a reminder, the Highway Patrol received a tip on December 7, 2015 that said Don Terrio Aitken, along with another black male, and another white male, listed as Murdoch in the investigation file, were the ones involved in Stephen Smith's death. June 13, 2016, time now is approximately 2.04 p.m. The start of the investigation number is CL-062-45. It's an incident that occurred in Hampton County in 2015. Currently speaking with Don Terrio Aitken, we're on, this is just off of SC3, and by the train tracks here, I'm Bill Dock. Lance Corporal Hoffman's with me.

Can you just tell me your name, just for the record? Don Terrio Aitken. Okay. Anybody else live there with you? My mom. My stickhead. And, um, it's occurred on July 8,

Saturday night, Sunday morning. James apparently isn't too keen on details in the case, because Stephen was killed on a Wednesday. Granted, police can lie during interviews to trick people, but why would he lie about that? Tell me, tell me what you know about this, about what happened to Stephen. I really don't know too much about him. I mean, I heard him, I don't know if he got killed, but that was this. I didn't know if he really had to do it. How? How did he get killed?

Somebody I know went to school with me in Facebook, social media pretty much. Really? Yeah. Who was that? Um, postage, two things. I can't remember who posted it, but I remember seeing it on Facebook. It was on somebody's page. Now you go to Facebook and you just be strolling.

And then somebody about the rest of the piece, Stephen, and I was like, Stephen. And then I seen it in my head. A picture of it. I was like, how would I care if you tell them to go to school with me? That's all. How do you die? That's all for you. How do you die?

How do you say, how do you die? I don't get it. Sometimes you get hit by a car or something. That's what you heard. Yeah. How do you get hit by a car? You didn't? No.

Someone murdered him. So I have to say this again. If Stephen was murdered, then why is the Highway Patrol investigating this case still? The Highway Patrol specializes in accident reconstruction. They are not equipped for murder investigations. And this is so obvious during this interview. That's what I'm saying. For what?

That's good. What would somebody do that to you? I have no idea. But he wouldn't bother nobody, I don't think. Because he was an athlete football. He was our trainer. I don't do much. I don't do much.

I never see him talk too much. I don't see him every now and then in school. But on that, I don't see him. Here, Donterio is telling James that he never really talked to Stephen and that Stephen was their trainer on the football team in high school. He said Stephen didn't talk a lot and he wondered why anybody would kill him. And what did you hear about his death? When I got home? What was that?

Friday? Before that? Friday? Sunday morning or something like that? No, it was like a week later when I heard about it. I came back home that way when I heard about it. I thought I was scared to death. What's happening on the weekend?

You know what I'm saying? What were you doing that weekend? Most of the time when I came home, I was working. I was doing that. That's what we were doing on the weekend too. I'm going to ask Aiken several questions about what he was doing on the weekend Stephen died. But again, Stephen didn't die on a weekend. And he brings this up over and over again,

asking him basically about an alibi for an insignificant weekend almost a year after this event occurred. Did you ever go out to parties out in the country? With some schoolmates? Why a party in so long? I don't even know what to say. What were you doing over the weekend? Working. But you said you were off.

You don't work on a weekend, right? I'm saying I do side work on a weekend. Right. I eat in people's houses. I can't answer my house. I used to go to a gusty sometimes. That weekend, I think I was in... I do that weekend.

Oh, I'm going to remind him of Giante. I worked at his house all day that day. It is highly unlikely that Aiken or anyone could have randomly recalled where he was on an uninventful weekend 11 months prior. And again, the weekend doesn't even matter because Stephen wasn't killed on the weekend. But the investigator doesn't know that and he just keeps asking about it. He eventually switches the subject and starts asking about the Murdochs. You, uh, did you ever school with some kids with the last name Murdoch? Murdoch?

Murdoch. I know a girl. You know the boys? What do you mean, Murdoch? Well, one of them, he graduated with school. Right. You hang out with him? No, I did.

Do you ever go to any of his parties at any time? Yes, sir. Then the interview starts to turn serious. It becomes clear that James is treating Aiken like a person of interest in this investigation. But then again, I have to say, the cops can lie in these types of interviews. Do you have an attorney? No. No?

Why would I need one? I'm just asking. What are you just saying? You know, your name's been comfortably brought up, you know, as a link in this death. So, I mean, if there's anything that you want to say about it, you know, I'd hate to see you down with whoever killed this boy. Well, I wasn't near. I didn't know about it until later after he died. On that, is it?

No, I mean, I was like, I heard he was hit by a car, and that was it. Yeah. He wasn't. So, we're going around and interviewing everybody that may have had a link based on what everybody's talking about. All right? He didn't get up right up. That's what I'm saying. I'm not calling you.

I'm not saying you're guilty of nothing right now. All right? But if you know something or something comes up in the future, this is by no means a closed investigation. Yes, it is. You know what I'm saying? I'll see. Yeah. So, you know, if something comes up in the near future, you know, and we have leads that go on and we discover new information about the case, even if you didn't do it.

I mean, if you were tied in with it and didn't cooperate with us, you know, that you could get in trouble. You know what I'm saying? Yes. And this is pretty... Yeah, that's real serious because it's serious. And that's it. That's the end of the investigation files. What kind of an investigation ends in an interview with a cop saying this is by no means a closed investigation?

In a best case scenario, they gave up and stopped caring about Steven Smith's death. Maybe they realized that they were in way over their heads trying to solve a murder as accident experts. But why didn't they give the case to sled at the time? And then we have to consider the worst case scenario. Did someone powerful interfere with this investigation and stop the wheels of justice from proceeding? We don't have the answers as to why this investigation ended, but we will find out. And we would most definitely hope that the South Carolina law enforcement division is now conducting its investigation in this case, as if all of the eyes of the world will be pouring through these case files later.

They should know that I won't give up on this case, no matter how long it takes. They should know that sunlight will shine on those case files and they don't want to look like the highway patrol. We have found more information about the direction that this case is heading and about Sandy Smith's attorney, but we're going to get into all of that in a later episode. For those of y'all who can't wait, subscribe to fitsnews.com, which brings me to some really good news. The Murdoch Murders podcast team is expanding. I have awesome reinforcement coming in to help us expose the truth wherever it leads in the Murdoch Murders saga, and I can't wait to tell y'all about it in the next episode.

I wanted to end the episode by saying thank you to every person who has supported us on this journey for almost five months now. There were a lot of times this summer when I wanted to give up on the podcast and your support kept me going. Now that we're expanding our team, I'm excited about so many new episodes that we have in store, including one on this crazy jellyfish gambit that David is super excited about. Sure am. Also, happy Veterans Day and thank you to all who have served, including my grandfather, a World War II veteran who turned 97 years old this week. Happy birthday, Grandpa Rocky.

A special thanks to Chris with Hooked Audio, the team at UTA, and all of our sponsors. Also, the Standing for Stephen event was a wild success. I'll talk about that in a later episode, but the GoFundMe to support Stephen's family and a scholarship in Stephen's name is still live. Check it out in the links in the description and I encourage y'all to donate. Stay tuned to the Murdoch Murders podcast and fitsnews.com. That's F-I-T-S News.com for the latest updates. Follow me on Twitter at Mandy Matney, that's M-A-N-D-Y-M-A-T-N-E-Y. And follow me on Instagram at Mandy underscore N underscore Hilton Head for more updates.

Or at the show link to learn how you can help. Leave a five-star review to offset the haters. Refer an advertiser and get a finder's fee. Or advertise your company, product or service. We can geotarget across the globe and find the right audience to suit your needs. Help us get Luna some treats so she doesn't interrupt the show as much. And absolutely subscribe to fitsnews.com. Mandy and Will are revolutionizing journalism and your subscriptions are invaluable to that mission.

Plus, you get awesome content every day. And don't forget to leave a five-star review, unless you're going to be nasty and talk about my vocal fry. The Murdoch Murders podcast is created by me, Mandy Matney, and my fiance, David Moses. Produced by Luna Shark Productions.